


A Slight Inebriation Isn't The End Of The World

by mariuspondmercy



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Awkward Marius, Enjolras & Marius Friendship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 18:12:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11064426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariuspondmercy/pseuds/mariuspondmercy
Summary: Marius might be a little drunk and he might be crushing on this particular girl from his class and he might not even know her name, but at least he has friends who support him.





	A Slight Inebriation Isn't The End Of The World

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a tumblr prompt I got and I figured I'd cross-post it on here because it got longer than expected.

Marius slid into the booth next to Enjolras, sighing deeply.

“You know,” Marius started. “I… I forgot what I wanted to say.”

He tightly clutched whatever fruity and highly alcoholic drink someone had given him. Enjolras nudged him softly, nipping at his own cocktail - Sex On The Beach, Grantaire promised to hold him to that during their next vacation.

“Are you drunk?”

“Maybe drunk on love!” Marius exclaimed, throwing his hands up, sloshing half his - was that a frozen daiquiri - over his own hand before sighing exasperatedly and dropping his face onto the table.

Enjolras simply watched him in amusement, knowing that Marius would go on without being prompted. Luckily, Enjolras thought, because it meant he was comfortable. He threw a quick glance to Courfeyrac, Marius’ usual source of comfort, but only found him dancing with Combeferre in a way he really didn’t fancy seeing his childhood friends interact with each other. Marius turned his head, cheek squished against the table, and looked up at Enjolras.

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Get Grantaire to date you.”

Enjolras hummed softly. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

“Because there’s this girl and she’s gorgeous! She’s the love of my life!” Marius exclaimed. “You hear? Love of my fucking life.”

“Alright,” Enjolras smiled. “Have you actually talked to her?”

“I’m being serious.” Marius sat up properly again and ran a hand through his hair. “I really am serious. I have never felt this way about someone. She… when I look at her, I want to smile. I want to hold her hand and lace our fingers, I want to walk along the Seine with her while chatting about nothing in particular.”

“Okay. But have you talked to her?”

“Yeah,” Marius breathed softly before taking a sip from his drink. “She studies social work and psychology and we share a class about sociolinguistics.”

“Ah,” Enjolras nodded softly. That was the first he’d heard of that.

Usually Marius was very talkative when it came to crushes who then turned out to be more friend-crushes than romantic crushes. He still had a hard time distinguishing between those two and Enjolras could understand that only too well. Maybe this one was serious - Enjolras made a mental note to ask Grantaire and Courfeyrac later. Or tomorrow.

“She’s so clever, you know? She knows so much and she’s real good with all your stuff as well. Gender and sexism and feminism and all that jazz.” He hummed. “Now I’ve got the song stuck in my head.”

“Come on, babe, why don’t we paint the town?” Enjolras sang softly, causing Marius to groan in frustration.

“Grantaire and his antiques are rubbing off on you.”

“They truly are. So, tell me more about her?”

“She is so clever, Enjolras! And so…. woke?” He winced slightly at that word in his own mouth but wasn’t entire sure what else to use. “She got into an argument with our tutor the other day and all I could do was stare at her in awe. And we’ve talked a bit, you know? Not much, just before class. I had my presentation about how language still colonises former colonies and she made some really clever comments and talked to me about it afterwards. We went for coffee because she had more questions and then I forgot to go to class after she left for hers.”

“Maybe you could ask her to join a Les Amis meeting?” Enjolras suggested.

Marius stared at him, eyes wide in shock. “No. Absolutely not.”

“What?” Enjolras frowned, about to ask some more when Courfeyrac let himself fall onto the seats opposite of them.

“Oh my god, I am sweating so much, it’s so hot outside and, God, Ferre is so hot, too, and we danced so much and I need a drink!”

Marius pushed his own glass over gently. “Take mine, it used to be frozen so it’s colder than others.” He slurred his words a little, but it had gotten better than half an hour ago.

Courfeyrac beamed at him. “You’re not up for dancing? I could introduce you to a cute boy or two. And there’s gorgeous ladies around, too. Not for your heart, just for your body.” He wiggled his eyebrows but was only met with the soft shake of Marius’ head.

“He’s in love,” Enjolras explained. “I thought you’d might know?”

“I had no idea!” He gasped. “Marius, I am wounded! You have to tell me everything and you have to bring them to a meeting, of course!”

“No, I can’t, I really, really cannot do that.” Marius shook his head, starting to shiver lightly.

“Oh no.” Courfeyrac cast a quick glance at Enjolras and swiftly slid into the booth next to Marius, pressing their legs together. “It’s okay. You don’t have to. We really are quite a handful. Loud and obnoxious and sometimes a bit too much, especially for people who don’t know us. It’s alright, you wonderful, marvellous rainbow cake.” Courfeyrac pressed a kiss to Marius’ cheek and hugged him tightly.

“It’s just…” Marius began, “if she meets you all, she’ll realise that I don’t fit. That I’m just there but never contribute. That I’m just… I’m not any of you.”

Enjolras looked uneasily at Courfeyrac, who just mouthed “drunk” right back.

“So,” Enjolras said, “tell us more about her, if you’re comfortable? You talk every time before class, right?”

“Yes.” Marius groaned and grabbed Enjolras’ cocktail to take a sip. “And I don’t even have her number! Classes are over now and I will never see her again! Ever! In my life!”

“He spends too much time with you,” Enjolras said to Courfeyrac who has to audacity to grin proudly.

“Have you tried Facebook?” Enjolras asked.

“I—I don’t know her name.”

Courfeyrac choked on his drink. “You what now?”

“I don’t know her name! I never asked! We just chatted, you know? And it was nice and I didn’t think… I never think! I didn’t ask and now I feel like an idiot.”

“Marius,” Enjolras sighed softly, squeezing his hand. “It’s okay. We can find out. Did she give a presentation, too?”

Marius shook his head. “No, she only got credit for active participation.” Marius groaned in frustration. “How could I have been so stupid oh my God, I need another drink.”

Courfeyrac handed him his own cocktail. “Okay, but there’s the online learning service, right? The platform? Maybe you can find out her name that way?”

Enjolras furrowed his brows. “But there’s probably more than one girl in the class and the names don’t have photos.”

“No, but at least Marius would have a starting point. He could look up all those names on Facebook! And then he’ll find her! Except when she has a pseudonym, of course.”

“I will never find her,” Marius sighed deeply. “Ever. I need to drink more, I need to forget about her.”

“I’ll get you another drink,” Courfeyrac chuckled and got up.

“I don’t want to forget about her, Enjolras. She has such beautiful eyes, you know? A deep chocolate brown, I could get lost in them. I did, a few times. It was awkward cause sometimes it happened when she asked me a question…”

Enjolras smiled softly and squeezed his shoulder. “You are head over heels, aren’t you?”

“I’ve never had that before,” he breathed, mild shock in his voice. “She is just… she is amazing. But it would never work. Imagine if she’d come to a meeting and she’d just realise that I’m just… that I’m so stupid. Everyone always has to tell me things. I didn’t know how horrible those TV shows all were until you told me. I only ever follow, I never have own ideas. And maybe, if we entertain… Thank you, Courf.” Marius took the glass and drank from it, pulling a face. “This is water. I didn’t order water. Oh God, nothing ever goes right.”

“Oh no…” Courfeyrac mumbled. “He’ll start crying soon, shit. He’s that drunk.”

Enjolras reached over the table and squeezed Courfeyrac’s hand before addressing Marius again: “How about we try finding her on Facebook through the uni learning platform and the course list? And when we’ve found her, you can invite her to a meeting. We’ll make sure that it’s a meeting centered around something you know.”

“I don’t really know much. I don’t even know why you’re friends with me. Maybe you’re just pretending.”

“Courfeyrac and I cannot lie to save our lives. We genuinely like you and I value your ideas. You know a lot about how language can oppress, how linguistics work. Maybe you could talk about our gendered language? Invite her to that. What do you think?”

Marius shrugged his shoulders. He was about to say something but stopped and visibly paled. “Oh my God, it’s her. She just came in.”

“Well, go to her!” Courfeyrac beamed. “This is perfect! It’s the end of the semester party, how did we not think of that!”

“I can’t go to her. She probably doesn’t even remember me. Maybe she’s glad she doesn’t have to see me every week and make stupid small talk. Oh my God, last week I told her about my obsession with whales!” Marius’ head met the table and he let out a frustrated groan.

“Marius, I don’t want to be rude or anything, but she’s actually approaching our table,” Enjolras mumbled softly. “Do you want me to turn her away?”

“No. Yes. Oh God I don’t know.” He looked up again and ran a hand through his hair. “How do I look?”

“Drunk,” is all Courfeyrac could say before a clearly nervous young woman was standing at their table.

“Hey, uhm… it’s Marius, right?” She said with a smile. “I actually forgot to get any contact details from you after the last class but… turns out my friend knows you?” She pointed back at Éponine. “We’ve got a lot of social work classes together and I don’t know, we got to talk…”

“She gushed about you the entire time,” Éponine grinned. “But today I finally connected the dots and figured out that her Marius is our Marius. You have no idea how many times I had to listen to her fawn about how good all your ideas are.”

Cosette smiled a little sheepishly and dropped her gaze, not saying anything else. The somewhat awkward silence carried on until Marius gasped lightly.

“I don’t even know your name!”

“Cosette,” she smiled and relief seemed to flood through her. “My name’s Cosette.”

“Cosette,” Marius breathed softly. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Uhm…” She chuckled nervously. “Maybe you could tell me your phone number? That would be a good start.”


End file.
